Ry Cooder, Ricky Skaggs, Buddy Miller, the Mavericks, JD Souther, Amy Helm and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightsweats are among the latest artists added to this year’s AmericanaFest, which takes place Sept. 15-20 in Nashville. Cooder will perform as part of a trio with Skaggs and Sharon White.

They join more than 150 acts scheduled to perform as part of the Americana Music Association’s 16th-annual festival and conference. American Aquarium, Amy Lavere, David Wax Museum, Donnie Fritts & John Paul White, Doug Seegers, Eilen Jewell, Jim Lauderdale, the Legendary Shack Shakers, Lindi Ortega, Sam Outlaw and the Steep Canyon Rangers are also among the artists that have been added to the bill.

Nominees for this year’s Americana Honors & Awards skew largely folky, and largely white, with few artists of color among the awards contenders the Americana Music Association announced today in Nashville.

Memphis singer Valerie June, an African-American, is nominated for Emerging Act of the Year. The category also includes Parker Millsap, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Sturgill Simpson and Hurray for the Riff Raff, a New Orleans band led by New York-born singer Alynda Lee Segarra, who is of Puerto Rican descent.

“If you listen to Rosanne’s album, clearly she’s inspired by country, she’s inspired by gospel, she’s inspired by that roots rock you’re talking about, and she’s inspired by the blues,” Hilly says, referring to Cash’s “The River and the Thread,” which is nominated for Album of the Year. Read More »

Any songwriter as active as Patty Griffin is bound to have a trove of unreleased tracks. In Griffin’s case, though, 14 of them weren’t supposed to be unreleased: they’re songs from “Silver Bell,” an album Griffin recorded in 2000 that was caught in limbo when her label at the time changed ownership. The album finally sees release this month, though the songs on “Silver Bell” haven’t been dormant all this time: the Dixie Chicks covered a couple of them, including “Top of the World.” Speakeasy premieres Griffin’s original version today.

The song shows the full range of the singer’s voice: she starts in a mournful murmur and lets the sorrow well up when she reaches the refrain, backed by a subtle blend of acoustic and electric guitars and simple piano.

“‘Top of the World’ was one of the first songs I wrote after moving to Austin, Texas,” Griffin told Speakeasy. “My mom sings the backing vocals on the bridge.”

Veteran music acts have teamed with younger admirers on new albums before — often in combinations involving Jack White — but Bon Iver leader Justin Vernon brings a particular reverence to his collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama on their new project, “I’ll Find a Way,” premiering today on Speakeasy.

Not only did Vernon produce the latest album from the gospel standard-bearers, he populated it with guests including Patty Griffin, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards and more. Those names may not mean much to old-school fans of the Blind Boys, but their involvement seems likely to help introduce the group to new audiences — an idea that suits the Blind Boys of Alabama just fine.

“The Blind Boys have made many albums, but we are as excited about this one as any we have ever done,” singer Jimmy Carter told Speakeasy. “We didn’t really know much about Justin Vernon when we started this project, but we were really impressed with his knowledge of gospel music and his ideas for the Blind Boys. It turned out that we all got along wonderfully, and the recording session was inspired. That young man did a great job — and so did we!”

It’s been six years since folk singer and songwriter Patty Griffin last released an album of mostly original material. She returns with a wallop on “American Kid,” which Speakeasy premieres today in its entirety.

Most of the 12 songs on the album are about her father, a World War II veteran who returned home to live for a time in a Trappist monastery before becoming a high school science teacher and raising seven children.

“The bulk of the record was written at a time where I knew my father was passing away,” Griffin says in a video explaining the album.

She recorded “American Kid” in Memphis with Luther and Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. She got to know the brothers when their group opened some shows while Griffin was touring as part of Band of Joy with Robert Plant, who contributed vocals to three songs: “Ohio,” “Faithful Son” and “Highway Song.

“Robert and I started working on things together, and coming up with things on stage,” Griffin says.

“American Kid” is due May 7 on New West Records. Griffin has a handful of tour dates scheduled in the United States in late May and early June before heading to Britain in July.

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.